It's 10:01 am MDT the next day and I belive that Kyle Singler is still in the process of closing-out on one of Jody Meeks' 3-pointers.

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It's now 10:18AM PST and he's almost there.

Mo Cheeks has officially taken the wind out of my sails. I'm done ranting about it. He brings the Double Dragons in and LA instantly goes on a run. So, to solve that problem in the second half he plays the Double Dragons most of the half while Will Bynum gets a DNP, he pulls Smith for one of the Dragons in crunch time and right when Jennings officially goes NBA Jam "On Fire," he throws in the towel and puts Harrelson & Mitchell in the game. They are still double teaming on EVERY possession, pick and roll or not, and the Double Dragons are STILL hanging out in the paint as if perimeter shooters are those pop-up bad guys on the swat team tactical course. Same stuff, different day....same result....and George Karl and Lionel Hollins are not coaching in the NBA. Awesome.

The defense is the most troubling thing for me. All the issues we expected - spacing, bad shots from Smoove/Jennings, no hooters etc. have turned out to be may be not as bad as expected. However, the defense has been terrible. The perimeter shots are wide open and the P&R defense is Church league quality. No rotations, late help defense etc. That said, I am the most engaged I have been watching a team since 2006.

The defense is the most troubling thing for me. All the issues we expected - spacing, bad shots from Smoove/Jennings, no hooters etc. have turned out to be may be not as bad as expected. However, the defense has been terrible. The perimeter shots are wide open and the P&R defense is Church league quality. No rotations, late help defense etc. That said, I am the most engaged I have been watching a team since 2006.

Mo Cheeks has officially taken the wind out of my sails. I'm done ranting about it. He brings the Double Dragons in and LA instantly goes on a run. So, to solve that problem in the second half he plays the Double Dragons most of the half while Will Bynum gets a DNP, he pulls Smith for one of the Dragons in crunch time and right when Jennings officially goes NBA Jam "On Fire," he throws in the towel and puts Harrelson & Mitchell in the game. They are still double teaming on EVERY possession, pick and roll or not, and the Double Dragons are STILL hanging out in the paint as if perimeter shooters are those pop-up bad guys on the swat team tactical course. Same stuff, different day....same result....and George Karl and Lionel Hollins are not coaching in the NBA. Awesome.

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Byron Scott was the in studio analyst for the Lakers last night so he is available too. I am still thinking Lionel Hollins who coaches defense may have been a better fit...I mean we have a couple of players that can play D if it had been emphasized...and boy do we need some D

Agree on Datome's defense being underrated. He's good at closing on shooters and he's got length for sure. He is a smart player who knows the game.

He still needs to pick up some speed when his man drives past him. It looks like instead of trying to stay in front of a faster player, he's positioning himself for a block from behind. The problem is that he won't get many of those against NBA players. He is long enough to bother shots though.

I wouldn't be sad to see all of JJ's and half of Singler's minutes go to Datome.

Jennings' high ast total does not impress me. 14 asts AND 22 shots means he's dominating the ball! Once he starts racking up hockey asts, I'll be impressed. I'm amazed that some of you all think that maybe he should look for his shot earlier.......LMBO! HE'S A CAREER 39% SHOOTER! And he takes the most shots on our team! But this loss isn't on him. This was all about our non existent defense and our starters (sans KCP) are the primary culprits. Our frontline just refuses to rotate out to the perimeter, Smith, Moose, and even Dre just won't do it.......and the scouting report is out on us- run a pick and roll involving Jennings (who quits on the play as soon as hes picked) and Dre-or-Moose, swing the ball and voilà wide open jumper. Games like this you have to limit the minutes of how long you go with the big lineup and go small. You also can't keep pretending that Singler is a legit rotation player.

Mo Cheeks has officially taken the wind out of my sails. I'm done ranting about it. He brings the Double Dragons in and LA instantly goes on a run. So, to solve that problem in the second half he plays the Double Dragons most of the half while Will Bynum gets a DNP, he pulls Smith for one of the Dragons in crunch time and right when Jennings officially goes NBA Jam "On Fire," he throws in the towel and puts Harrelson & Mitchell in the game. They are still double teaming on EVERY possession, pick and roll or not, and the Double Dragons are STILL hanging out in the paint as if perimeter shooters are those pop-up bad guys on the swat team tactical course. Same stuff, different day....same result....and George Karl and Lionel Hollins are not coaching in the NBA. Awesome.

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...and to clarify. The "Double Dragons" are Stuckey and Singler....not to be confused with the Towers of Power in Drummond and Monroe or the Chimaera of Smith, Drummond, & Monroe.

Jennings is 1st on the team in "hockey assists" (passes to a guy who gets an assist within 2 seconds).

BJ is 7th in the league in assist opportunities (passes that would be assists if the recipient made the shot).

He's 8th in the league in points created by his assists per game (takes into account 3-pointers essentially)

He's T7th in the league in passes that result in FT's for the recipient where the recipient makes at least 1 of the 2 FT's (he gets hurt slightly here every time Drummond goes 0-2 from the line... but that makes sense that it should).

In terms of passes per game, BJ is less pass happy than most PG's. For example, CP3 passes the ball 80.3 times per game and BJ is only at 53.4. CP3 is extreme, but still, BJ is around 40th in the league in passes per game. Not necessarily bad, just out of line with the others.

Jennings is 1st on the team in "hockey assists" (passes to a guy who gets an assist within 2 seconds).

BJ is 7th in the league in assist opportunities (passes that would be assists if the recipient made the shot).

He's 8th in the league in points created by his assists per game (takes into account 3-pointers essentially)

He's T7th in the league in passes that result in FT's for the recipient where the recipient makes at least 1 of the 2 FT's (he gets hurt slightly here every time Drummond goes 0-2 from the line... but that makes sense that it should).

In terms of passes per game, BJ is less pass happy than most PG's. For example, CP3 passes the ball 80.3 times per game and BJ is only at 53.4. CP3 is extreme, but still, BJ is around 40th in the league in passes per game. Not necessarily bad, just out of line with the others.

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Where does he rank in unassisted 3-point attempts?
Or perhaps there's a better way to measure 3-pointers taken outside of the flow of the offense.

...He's leading the league in AOTGs this year.
He's getting my all-star vote on this alone!

Where does he rank in unassisted 3-point attempts?
Or perhaps there's a better way to measure 3-pointers taken outside of the flow of the offense.

...He's leading the league in AOTGs this year.
He's getting my all-star vote on this alone!

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the closest that I can come to answering that is to look at jump shots out of the paint, since it includes 3's.

BJ takes 76% of his shot attempts outside the paint and is only assisted on 14% of the makes. 8% of his shot attempts out there are blocked. He gets 10.0 points per 48 min on these.

For comparison,
Chris Paul (using the ideal) takes 90% of his shots outside the paint is is assisted on only 22% of them. He gets blocked 2% of the time and gets 11.9 points per 48 min on these.

So, point guards in general either assist or create their own for the most part. Jennings is no different and he is a better mix of J vs drive than CP3 for example. But he's less efficient on J's and gets blocked like a son of gun. Bynum hasn't been blocked on a jumper yet this year despite taking about 60% of his shot attempts from outside the paint.

the closest that I can come to answering that is to look at jump shots out of the paint, since it includes 3's.

BJ takes 76% of his shot attempts outside the paint and is only assisted on 14% of the makes. 8% of his shot attempts out there are blocked. He gets 10.0 points per 48 min on these.

For comparison,
Chris Paul (using the ideal) takes 90% of his shots outside the paint is is assisted on only 22% of them. He gets blocked 2% of the time and gets 11.9 points per 48 min on these.

So, point guards in general either assist or create their own for the most part. Jennings is no different and he is a better mix of J vs drive than CP3 for example. But he's less efficient on J's and gets blocked like a son of gun. Bynum hasn't been blocked on a jumper yet this year despite taking about 60% of his shot attempts from outside the paint.

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I'm very happy with Jennings' assist numbers so far - unlike his shot selection - and I get the feeling that once he gets a feel for this offense (or once Cheeks gets an offense), that this team is going to take off.